WASHINGTON, DC - The Joint Congressional Committee
on Inaugural Ceremonies, today announced the program for the 56th
Presidential Inauguration, which will take place on the West Front of
the U.S. Capitol on January 20, 2009.

The program participants were based on requests from the
President-elect and the Vice President-elect.

The order of the program will be as follows:

Musical Selections
The United States Marine Band

Musical Selections
The San Francisco Boys Chorus and the San Francisco Girls Chorus

[Ed.
Note: Due to cold weather the audio of the live performance of
Williams' piece "Air
and Simple Gifts"was not
broadcast; the piano, for example would not hold its tuning. The
musicians played, but what the audience heard was a version recorded
earlier].

Biographies

Elizabeth Alexander is a poet, essayist,
playwright, and teacher. She is the author of four books and was a
finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize. She has received many grants and
honors, most recently the Alphonse Fletcher, Sr. Fellowship for work
that "contributes to improving race relations in American society and
furthers the broad social goals of the U.S. Supreme Court's Brown v.
Board of Education decision of 1954," and the 2007 Jackson Prize for
Poetry. She is a professor at Yale University and was a fellow at the
Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University this year.

Aretha Franklin is often described as "The Queen
of Soul." In a career spanning more than 50 years, she has earned a
reputation as one of the greatest singers of our time, with a
repertoire that includes soul, jazz, rock, blues, pop, and gospel.
Franklin has won 21 Grammy Awards, including the Living Legend Grammy
and the Lifetime Achievement Grammy. In 1987 she became the first woman
to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Other awards
include the National Medal of Arts, the Presidential Medal of Freedom,
and the Kennedy Center Honors.

The Reverend Dr. Joseph E. Lowery, considered the
dean of the civil rights movement, co-founded along with Martin Luther
King, Jr., the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and
served as president and chief executive officer from 1977 to January
15, 1998. He served as pastor of Atlanta's oldest predominantly Black
United Methodist congregation, Central Methodist Gardens for 18 years,
and as pastor of Cascade United Methodist Church from 1986 to 1992.

Anthony McGill is the principal clarinetist of the
New York Metropolitan Orchestra, a member of the Peabody Conservatory
faculty in clarinet, and a much sought after soloist and chamber
musician. A graduate of the Curtis Institute, he is a recipient of the
prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, a program designed to provide
support for up-and-coming instrumentalists. He has performed at many
music festivals, and appeared as a soloist with the symphony orchestras
of Baltimore, New Jersey, and Hilton Head, and performed at Lincoln
Center as a member of Chamber Music Society Two. McGill has also toured
Europe and Japan with a chamber ensemble including Mitsuko Uchida and
members of the Brentano String Quartet.

Yo-Yo Ma is a world renownedcellist,
educator, and ambassador for the arts. His recordings are among the
most successful recordings in the classical field, and reflect his
wide-ranging interest in many musical genres and traditions. He began
studying the cello at age four. He studied at the Juilliard School, and
is a graduate of Harvard University. His awards include the Avery
Fisher Prize, the Glenn Gould Prize, and the National Medal of the
Arts. Appointed a CultureConnect Ambassador by the United States
Department of State in 2002, Yo-Yo Ma has met with, trained, and
mentored thousands of students worldwide. In 2006, Secretary General
Kofi Annan named him a U.N. Messenger of Peace, and in 2007
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon extended his appointment.Gabriela Montero is a pianist known both for her
impeccable classical playing and her improvisational gift. Montero gave
her first public performance at the age of five. At age eight she made
her concert debut with the Venezuelan Youth Orchestra, and was granted
a scholarship to study in the United States. At twelve she won the
Baldwin National Competition and AMSA Young Artist International Piano
Competition. She won the Bronze Medal at the 13th International Chopin
Piano Competition in Warsaw in 1995, and since then has played at
recital halls and festivals around the world. Her recordings include
both performances of well known classical compositions, as well as
improvisations on themes by Bach and other classical composers.

Itzhak Perlman is one of the greatest violinists
of our time. Following his training at the Academy of Music in Tel Aviv
and the Julliard School, Perlman won the prestigious Leventritt
Competition in 1964. Since then, Perlman has performed with every major
orchestra throughout the world. He has also conducted orchestras
including the Berlin Philharmonic, the London Philharmonic, the
Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony,
and the New York Philharmonic. He has won 15 Grammy Awards, four Emmy
Awards, and numerous other awards including the Kennedy Center Honors,
the National Medal of Arts, and the Medal of Liberty, presented by
President Reagan in 1986 to honor the nation's most distinguished
naturalized citizens during the centennial celebration of the Statue of
Liberty. Perlman is also an educator, teaching at the Perlman Music
Program and the Juilliard School, where he holds the Dorothy Richard
Starling Foundation Chair.

Dr. Rick Warren founded Saddleback Church in Lake
Forest, California, in 1980 with one family. Today, it is an
evangelical congregation averaging 22,000 weekly attendees, a 120-acre
campus, and has more than 300 community ministries to groups such as
prisoners, CEOs, addicts, single parents, and those with HIV/AIDS. He
also leads the Purpose Driven Network of churches, a global coalition
of congregations in 162 countries. TIME magazine named him one of "15
World Leaders Who Mattered Most in 2004," and in 2005 one of the "100
Most Influential People in the World."

John Williams is one of the most successful and
best-known composers of our time. He studied at UCLA, Los Angeles City
College, and the Juilliard School. Williams has composed the music and
served as a music director for more than one hundred films, has
received forty-five Academy Award nominations, and won five. He also
has been awarded seven British Academy Awards (BAFTA), twenty Grammys,
four Golden Globes, four Emmys, numerous gold and platinum records, and
the Kennedy Center Honors. Williams has written many concert pieces,
and special compositions for events including the Special Olympics, and
the Summer and Winter Olympic Games. From1980-1993, Williams conducted
the Boston Pops Orchestra, and assumed the title of Boston Pops
Laureate Conductor after retiring in December 1993. Williams also holds
the title of Artist-in-Residence at Tanglewood.

The San Francisco Boys Chorus (SFBC)was
founded in 1948 and has become an internationally acclaimed
Grammy-award winning organization. The chorus has over 240 singers from
50 Bay Area cities and more than 120 schools at three Bay Area
campuses. SFBC has toured in four continents where they performed for
dignitaries such as: Pope John Paul II, HRH Queen Elizabeth II of
England, King Carl XVI Gustav of Sweden, HM Prince of Wales, the
President of the former Soviet Union, and U.S presidents. SFBC
celebrated their 60 year anniversary this year.

The San Francisco Girls Chorus (SFGC)is
comprised of more than 300 singers, ages 7-18, from 160 schools in 44
Bay Area cities. SFGC was founded in 1978 and has become a regional
center for choral music education and performance. The Chorus can also
be heard on several San Francisco Symphony recordings, including three
Grammy Award-winners. In 2001, SFGC became the first youth chorus to
win the prestigious Margaret Hillis Award given annually by Chorus
America to a chorus that demonstrates artistic excellence, a strong
organizational structure, and a commitment to education.

The United States Marine Band, founded in 1798 by an
Act of Congress, is America's oldest professional musical organization.
Also called "The President's Own," the Marine Band is celebrated for
its role at the White House and its dynamic public performances. The
Marine Band performs a varied repertoire including new works for wind
ensemble, traditional concert band literature, challenging orchestral
transcriptions, and the patriotic marches that made it famous. The band
frequently features its members in solo performances that highlight
their virtuosity and artistry.

The United States Navy Band "Sea Chanters" is the
official chorus of the United States Navy. In 1956, Lt. Harold Fultz,
then the Band's assistant leader, organized an all male group of
singers from the Navy School of Music in Anacostia for the State of the
Nation dinner. The group was an instant success, so Admiral Arleigh
Burke, Chief of Naval Operations, transferred them to the Navy Band,
named them the "Sea Chanters," and gave them the mission of carrying on
the songs of the sea. Women joined the "Sea Chanters" in 1980. The
chorus appears throughout the United States and has also sung with the
Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony, and the
Cincinnati Pops Orchestra.